@thi.ng/pixel-dither

[!NOTE] This is one of 205 standalone projects, maintained as part of the @thi.ng/umbrella monorepo and anti-framework.

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• About
• Status
• Installation
• Dependencies
• Usage examples
• API
  • Custom dither kernels
• Authors
• License

About

Extensible image dithering w/ various algorithm presets. This is a support package for @thi.ng/pixel.

The package provides the following dithering algorithm presets (can also be very easily extended via definition of custom kernels):

• Atkinson
• Bayes (ordered dithering w/ customizable sizes & levels)
• Burkes
• Diffusion (1D row/column, 2D)
• Floyd-Steinberg
• Jarvis-Judice-Ninke
• Sierra 2-row
• Stucki
• Threshold

Status

STABLE - used in production

Search or submit any issues for this package

Installation

yarn add @thi.ng/pixel-dither

ESM import:

import * as pd from "@thi.ng/pixel-dither";

Browser ESM import:

<script type="module" src="https://esm.run/@thi.ng/pixel-dither"></script>

JSDelivr documentation

For Node.js REPL:

const pd = await import("@thi.ng/pixel-dither");

Package sizes (brotli'd, pre-treeshake): ESM: 1.06 KB

Dependencies

• @thi.ng/checks
• @thi.ng/math
• @thi.ng/pixel

Usage examples

Three projects in this repo's /examples directory are using this package:

Screenshot	Description	Live demo	Source
	Showcase of various dithering algorithms	Demo	Source
	Image dithering and remapping using indexed palettes	Demo	Source
	Multi-layer vectorization & dithering of bitmap images	Demo	Source

API

Generated API docs

import { imageFromURL, intBufferFromImage, GRAY8 } from "@thi.ng/pixel";
import { ditherWith, ATKINSON } from "@thi.ng/pixel-dither";

// create pixel buffer from HTML image element
const img = intBufferFromImage(await imageFromURL("test.jpg"));

// apply dithering to all channels in given pixel buffer
ditherWith(ATKINSON, img);

// first convert to 8-bit gray before dithering
ditherWith(ATKINSON, img.as(GRAY8));

// ...or apply dithering to select channels only
// use custom threshold & error spillage/bleed factor
ditherWith(ATKINSON, img, { channels: [1, 2, 3], threshold: 0.66, bleed: 0.75 });

Custom dither kernels

All bundled algorithm presets (apart from orderedDither()) are implemented as DitherKernel configurations for, defining how each dithered pixel's error should be diffused/distributed to neighbors. This approach makes it very easy to define custom dither configs, like so:

import { ditherWith, type DitherKernel } from "@thi.ng/pixel-dither";

const CUSTOM: DitherKernel = {
    // X offsets of neighbor pixels to update
    ox: [1],
    // Y offsets of neighbor pixels to update
    oy: [1],
    // error weights for updated pixels
    weights: [1],
    // bit shift (scale factor)
    shift: 1,
};

ditherWith(CUSTOM, img);

The above config will distribute the error to a single pixel @ offset (1,1). However the error will be bit-shifted by 1 bit to the right (aka division-by-2). In code form:

pixels[i + ox + oy * width] += (err * weight) >> shift;

Important: Ensure the offset positions only refer to still unprocessed pixels, i.e. those to the right and/or below the currently processed pixel (in following rows).

You can see the result of this kernel in the pixel-dither demo.

Authors

• Karsten Schmidt

If this project contributes to an academic publication, please cite it as:

@misc{thing-pixel-dither,
  title = "@thi.ng/pixel-dither",
  author = "Karsten Schmidt",
  note = "https://thi.ng/pixel-dither",
  year = 2021
}

License

© 2021 - 2025 Karsten Schmidt // Apache License 2.0